Temperatures ranging in the mid 90's, the racing was just as hot on the 3/8 banked clay oval as the fans of Grays Harbor Raceway were greeted with a great field of 360 Sprint Cars, Cut Rate Auto Part Street Stocks and Outlaw Tuners
Cut Rate Auto Parts Street Stocks:
Elma's Tyler Walker and Mike Clingen of Westport set the front row of the 20 lap feature event in the Cut Rate Auto Parts Street Stock division. Walker took the early lead, but the red flag would fly for Nick Bramer of Spanway making hard contact with the wall on the backstretch, causing fuel to spill from the car. He did walk away from the incident. On the restart, Walker took the lead once again, as Hoquiam's Jack Parshall moved into the second spot by going up the middle of Clingen and Tacoma driver Mike Knox Jr.
Lap 2 saw Parshall race side by side with Walker, as Austin Kerrigan of Aberdeen joined in on the battle. Parshall took the lead from Walker in turn three, and started to pull away from the field. Brandon Riehl of Boring, Ore worked his way through the field from the 14th position and didn't take long to make it into the top five early in the race. Lap 8 saw Riehl look to the inside of Parshall on a restart to try and take the lead. Riehl got the position down the front stretch and never looked back. Parshall had a few chances on restarts, but at the end of the feature Brandon Riehl picked up his first career Grays Harbor Raceway victory. Austin Kerrigan, Shane Kerrigan, Parshall, and Oakville's Brian Harding rounded out the top five. Earlier in the evening Brenton Schnitzer, Eddie Blood, and Kelly Fugate were heat race winners, with Schnitzer getting fast time.
Outlaw Tuners:
Elisabeth Knox of Parkland led the field to the green flag in the 20 lap Outlaw Tuner feature, but the yellow would come out for a multi car incident on the backstretch involving Aberdeen's Ryan Onasch, and George Lovell of Wishkah. Lovell continued on, Onasch had damage to his car, causing his night to end early. Timmy Phillips of Spanaway led the field down on the restart, as the field went three wide on the start, Willie Wright of Aberdeen took the early lead, but the red flag would come out, as the race director did not like the start.
On the restart, Phillips led the field down once again, but it didn't take long for Lovell to take the early lead from Phillips. Lovell didn't waste any time pulling away from the rest of the field, as the battle for second between Phillips and Wright started to heat up with Wright taking the second position. Late into the feature event, Lovell and Wright hit lap traffic, with Wright reeling in Lovell. George Lovell held off Wright at the line, picking up his first career feature victory. Wright, and Phillips rounded out the top three. Earlier in the evening Onasch won the heat race.
360 Sprint Cars:
Enumclaw's Henry Van Dam led the field to the green flag in the 25 lap feature. Puyallup's Trey Stark took the early lead, but the red flag would fly with an incident between Elma's Jason Reed, and Devin Madonia of Granite Falls. On the restart Van Dam took the lead from Starks, as Tacoma's Evan Margeson ran in the third position. Colton Heath of Marysville moved into the top five quickly from near the back of the field, the yellow would come out for Margeson, and Garrett Johnson of Poulsbo as both drivers spun in turn two on lap 2. Van Dam led the field to the green on the restart, and pulled away slightly from Starks, and Cobble Hill, BC driver Robbie Price. Heath made a dive bomb move into turn one taking the third spot bringing Jay Cole of Shelton along with him.
As Van Dam and Starks hit lapped traffic the fans were cheering on a battle between both for the lead. Van Dam maneuvered his way through traffic, with Starks on his back bumper, looking to the inside of Van Dam a few times for position. A lap 23 caution for Johnson slowing in turn three brought a green, white, checkered restart that saw Van Dam get a great jump on Starks. Van Dam pulled away quickly, and went on to take the checkered flag. Starks, Heath, Tyler Anderson of Everett, and Cole rounded out the top five. Heat races winners earlier in the evening were Travis Jacobson, Jay Cole, and Devin Madonia with Trevor Cook picking up Fast Time.
Racing will resume next Saturday as it's Budweiser Night at the Fair Race during the Grays Harbor County Fair. Cut Rate Auto Parts Street Stocks will have their "Iron Man Event" also on tap are the Shipwreck Beads Modifieds and Outlaw Tuners. Racing will start earlier then normal as the gates will open at 3:30 PM, with racing starting at 5PM.
Outlaw Tuners:
Heat Race:
11 Ryan Onasch
Feature:
96 George Lovell
Street Stocks:
Fast Time:
87 Brenton Schnitzer
Heat 1:
- 87 Brenton Schnitzer, 2. AK47 Austin Kerrigan, 3. 91 Mike Clingen, 4. 28 Brian Harding, 5. 00 Mike Saylors, 6. 99 Matt Babcock
Heat 2:
- 97 Eddie Blood, 2. 9 Jack Parshall, 3. 87W Tyler Walker, 4. 34 Jason Tole, 5. 69 Brandon Riehl, 6. 14 Jeff Daniel
Heat 3:
- 22X Kelly Fugate, 2. 40 Mike Knox Jr, 3. 43 Shane Kerrigan, 4. 23 Nick Bramer, 5. 78 Josh Anthony, 6. 19 Taylor Miller
Feature:
- Riehl, 2. Austin Kerrigan, 3. Shane Kerrigan, 4. Parshall, 5. Harding, 6. Schnitzer, 7. Tole, 8. Walker, 9. Saylors, 10. Daniel, 11. Knox Jr, 12. Blood, 13. Clingen, 14. Anthony, 15. Babcock, 16. Fugate, 17. Miller, 18. Bramer
Sprint Cars:
Fast Time:
22C Trevor Cook
Heat 1:
- 44H Travis Jacobson, 2. 33 Colton Heath, 3. 33V Henry Van Dam, 4. 3G Garrett Johnson, 5. 22C Trevor Cook, 6. 89 Sterling Kane
Heat 2:
- 0J Jay Cole, 2. 24 Tyler Anderson, 3. 50 Evan Margeson, 4. 21 Robbie Price, 5. 22D Devin Barnes
Heat 3:
- 42 Devin Madonia, 2. 55 Trey Starks, 3. 12R Jared Ridge, 4. 98 Matt Jensen, 5. 97R Jason Reed
Feature:
- Van Dam, 2. Starks, 3. Heath, 4. Anderson, 5. Cole, 6. Jacobson, 7. Margeson, 8. Price, 9. Jensen, 10. Dunlap, 11. Barnes, 12. Cook, 13. Kane, 14. Johnson, 15. Ridge, 16. Madonia, 17. Reed
- Steve Beitler on Aug 02, 2015
- Article Date: 8/2/2015 by Aaron Reed